Red Frog Beach Resort Review, Bocas Del Toro

As two weeks passed by in Panama, and Silvia and I were ended out trip in Bocas Del Toro, people kept saying “ah, you’ve been to San Blas so you’ll find Bocas a let down”. We were like “oh no!” and worried about it a bit. We are both 30-ish and over our party backpacking days. Bocas Del Toro is a party place on the main island of Colon but being on the island of Bastimentos, hiding out at the Red Frog Beach Resort was our saving grace! I’ll share about the resort here – and you can read my article on what you need to know before you go to Bocas Del Toro here.

The infinity pool was great, and yes, we saw a sloth in the wild here!

Fruit juices and cocktails are all around $5 so you can get your drink on and stay on budget all day if you want, by the pool or beach

Red Frog Beach Resort Review

The resort is one of the more well-known ones is Bocas Del Toro and has around 60 villas (we stayed in a villa) and some Bali-style jungle lodges which are a bit cheaper but really cute. The villas are more “modern” I’d say. They don’t have tropical jungle vibes and you can tell they are built to please the Americans visiting. Really, it reminds me of cabins we have in Ohio at the National Parks and such – affordable, convenient, and great for families.

Here is a look around our villa.

The villa was fully stocked but did need some repairs. The main bathroom in the hall had a toilet that always ran when you flushed and the shower didn’t turn on so I had to share with Silvia. I’m sure if I had told maintenance, they would have fixed it but I didn’t really mind. The A/C was wonderful, beds were comfy and we used the fully-stocked kitchen to cook two nights while we watched old 90’s movies and did some blogging work.

We stayed for four nights, which meant we had time to go to both on-site restaurants, the spa, and explore both Red Frog Beach and Turtle Beach which is the resorts private beach. One thing to note is that the sea is rough here and we could not swim – however, it is rainy season and in peak season it might be safer.

The food was really nice, not amazing, but this is an island resort so you can’t really expect Michelin star. Everything we had was nice, though, and ranged around $15 for a meal. Had we paid more like $25 we could have gotten lobster, etc but we had already eaten a lot of that in other places in Panama.

They have one restaurant by the pool and one on the beach. At the beach, try the fried prawns – yum! I fed the tails to the little dogs that became my besties. This resort was a really nice place to relax and end our trip in Panama. It’s a quick 10-minute boat ride to town and from there just 3 minutes to the aiport by car (included in the price of the room) so it’s good even for before you fly out. We had a 740 flight and it was totally okay. We left with a group of other guests.

If you stay, BONUS: you’ll get to meet this dog and his brother. I called them Boca and Chica and they came to find me every day (or so I like to think). Such cuties!

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Rachel Jones left a career in nursing and lived on the beaches of Goa, India for the five years. Now she lives in Mexico where she gives advice on the 40+ countries she’s visited in the last 10 years. She’s the author of two India travel e-books: Guide to India and Insider’s Guide to Goa. Her blog, Hippie in Heels, like its name, is a contradiction combining off-beat adventurous places with glamorous and bespoke travel. Hippie in Heels has been featured in ELLE, Marie Claire, Grazia, and Cosmopolitan magazines. She’s a writer for Bravo TV.